Water-wise
One may wonder why Bruce Mitchell developed an interest in water management, given
that he was born and raised in Prince Rupert, on British Columbia’s northwest
coast, where water shortages are seldom a concern. But perhaps it’s not such
a stretch. As a high school and then university student, Mitchell worked in fish
plants and as a deckhand on a troller. This first-hand experience in a resourcebased
industry stuck with him. He became a geography professor at southwestern Ontario’s
University of Waterloo and has spent four decades tackling the complexities of
wisely governing this precious natural resource.

Mitchell’s principal contribution has been to “integrated water-resource
management,” which focuses on selected variables affecting water and surrounding
ecosystems, rather than the conventional approach, popular in the 1960s and 1970s,
of developing catch-all policies for a river basin’s entire watershed. Collecting
a broad range of scientific data for a comprehensive approach took too long to
be practical, says Mitchell. In the early 1980s, he began to zero in on factors
that have a significant influence on water systems.

Mitchell’s integrated approach has been applied to the Great Lakes. Instead
of developing policies for the entire Great Lakes watershed system — a daunting
task given the huge population and multiple national, state, provincial and municipal
governments involved — the International Joint Commission, which deals with
waterresource issues along the Canada-U.S. boundary, has concentrated on 42 subecosystems,
such as harbours, bays and estuaries.

Internationally, Mitchell’s expertise has been sought by governments and
universities in Australia, Indonesia, China, Nigeria and India.

“Bruce is one of the people who first realized that it’s not, in fact,
the resources that need managing — it’s us,” says Philip Dearden,
a geography professor at the University of Victoria who co-authored, with Mitchell,
a book on environmental science and management.

Indeed, when asked what is the most pressing watermanagement issue in Canada today,
Mitchell is quick to answer that too many Canadians still believe we have an abundance
of water and therefore waste it. “It’s way too easy for us as individuals
to criticize the governments or industry,” he says, “but at the end
of the day, we each are water managers.”

Sailing into the planet’s barometer
For two weeks in September, high school students representing every province and
territory in Canada will join students from Ireland, the United Kingdom, Germany,
Mexico, Brazil and India and become climate-change ambassadors as part of the sixth
annual Cape Farewell expedition. The students will travel southwest from Iceland,
past Cape Farewell, the southernmost tip of Greenland, to Baffin Island, Nunavut,
to focus attention on the dramatic changes occurring in the North.

The expedition is funded by the British Council, the United Kingdom’s international
organization dedicated to promoting education and cultural relations, and supported
by The Royal Canadian Geographical Society.

Created by British artist David Buckland in 2001, the expedition is based on the
notion that artists and scientists must collaborate to help the public better understand
climate-change issues.

Working on science and art projects with the experts on board, the students will
send video and text blogs home to their schools and will continue their participation
once they return. Artists and scientists on previous excursions have contributed
to the evocative “Cape Farewell: Art and Climate Change” international
exhibit, featuring moving images projected onto glacial ice.

“We are hugely excited about this expedition,” says Martin Rose, director
of the British Council in Ottawa. “The Canadian Arctic is clearly one of
the most important regions when it comes to climate change.” Quoting Nobel
Prize nominee Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Rose adds, “It’s the health barometer
for the planet.”

Twice a champion
For the second year in a row, Maxim Ralchenko of Ottawa has won the Geography
Challenge national final. The 14-year old high school student beat out 41 other
finalists from every Canadian province and territory in the online competition
held in May by the Canadian Council
for Geographic Education.

Ralchenko, who lists geography among his favourite subjects, was a member of the
Canadian team that placed third last year at the National Geographic World Championship
in San Diego, California (“The
inside story,” CG Nov/Dec 2007).

Graham Tompkins, 15, of Dartmouth, N.S., took second place after a gruelling three
rounds of questions to break a four-way tie. Daniel Austin-Boyd, 14, of Toronto
placed third.

National finalists from the 2008 and 2009 Challenges will be eligible to compete
for a spot on Team Canada for the 2009 World Championship, at a location yet to
be determined.

MAGAZINE

And the nominees are …
Photographer and frequent Canadian Geographic contributor
Patrice Halley has been nominated for a National Magazine
Award in photojournalism for his portraits of the people and
communities of the Mackenzie Delta, N.W.T.
(“People of the delta,” CG Sept/Oct 2007). Photographer
Benoit Aquin also received a nomination for photojournalism
for his images of a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker on its
course through the Northwest Passage (“Policing
the passage,”
CG Jan/Feb 2007). “Stages
of sprawl” (CG May/June 2007),
featuring photographer Peter Sibbald’s photos of encroaching
urban development, was nominated in the
Words and Pictures category. And writer Siobhan Roberts
received a nomination in the category of Science, Technology
and the Environment for her story on a Canadian scientist’s plan
to create a database of every species on Earth (“Barcoding
life,”
CG March/April 2007).